A/N: An idea I had, but the fact that I was in basic ensured it came out late. That and actually getting it written down.
Everlasting
Mid-afternoon December 31st, 2099
Capulet city was alight with joy and festivity. The religious holidays had just passed, and people the world over were anxiously preparing for, and celebrating, the coming of a new century. Alcohol was abound, and the good cheer was proving contagious. Large screens spread throughout the city broadcast New York City's famous mark of celebration. All of the United States was able to see and celebrate the new century together, and many citizens were out attending block parties and all around having a good time.
One man in particular, however, was seated in a diner enjoying a strawberry sundae. The theme was of a decade long passed, with music of the time and sooner playing to match. Examples of the ancient artists included Bob Crosby and the Bobcats, The Isley Brothers, and Henry Mancini. The current track playing was a low tempo song featuring a piano softly soloing over the remaining jazz orchestra. It was a song that seemed to dragged along, as if symbolizing the end of a century with so many great advances. The man thought the song was titled "Dreamsville."
The man picked up his guitar case, and left his payment on the table, with a tip. "Have a good New Year, Dante!" a woman's voice called after him as he opened the door.
Dante stopped with the door open, and called back, "You too, Carrie," before heading home. Dante vaguely thought she just wasn't the same as Cindy.
12:05 AM January 1st, 2100
Dante sat at his desk in Devil May Cry, with a case of beer by his outstretched legs and a bottle of whiskey in his hand. Also on the floor was an empty can of tomato juice.
"To a new century," Dante said, slowly raising the bottle to no one.
Dante was alone. He might be drinking himself into a stupor, but he was truly alone in his shop. Rarely did he ever get many customers, still being located in the slums, and the line to his phone had been obsolete and disconnected for the past five decades.
Lady had stopped bringing him jobs fifty years ago, well after she decided to finally settle down and put demon-hunting behind her another ten years prior. She would still get calls for jobs well after she set aside demon hunting, but always passed them on to Dante. Forty years ago she stopped visiting the old shop altogether. Dante still had Kalina-Ann hanging on the wall, doing little more than gathering dust.
Trish had decided that she could make a bigger difference in the fight against the Underworld from within. She left the human world thirty-five years ago. Dante had heard nothing of her since then. Sparda, his father's sword, also hung on the wall, but the demonic power within repelled dust for some reason (Dante vaguely remembered Sparda always fussing over the cleanliness of his blades). A picture of Trish stood next to Eva's, as well.
Morrison stood in a frame dated 2025. His age never slowed down his business with Dante, but it did catch up to him in a demon attack in 2030. Dante had been broke for six straight months without any high paying jobs after the attack.
Patty had stopped visiting Dante sixty years ago. Capulet became too small for the woman who had cleaned after him for much of his career. Dante's reminder of her was the condition of his office. Needless to say, it was filthy.
A picture of Kyrie and Nero from seventy years back stood behind Trish and Eva. Ten years after the picture was taken, Nero lost both her and his unborn child to natural causes. Nero had grieved for years, throwing himself at any job dealing with hunting demons with reckless abandon. Red Queen was leaning against the billiards table. Nero was out training with Blue Rose and Yamato. Nero had become far less uncouth after he lost Kyrie. He was still extremely emotional, but tried to hide it by training excessively every day. His refinement with Yamato improved his skill at a prodigious, and Dante had noted that the younger hunter was fast approaching the skill level his late brother once held, after a brief fight.
Dante had remained much the same, to external observers, but never let on anything of change for him personally. He was prone to drinking more often, and was rarely sober off the job. Nero would often carry/drag Dante to the elder hunter's bed on the second level at night, after returning from training.
Nero had stayed out training later than usual that night. Dante was still conscious when the younger devil arrived home, if only just.
"You just couldn't stay out of the whiskey, could you, Dante?" Nero asked upon seeing the less-than-full bottle in the red hunter's hand.
"It's New Years! Where's the fun in celebrating that without a good drink?" Dante called in response, clearly drunk to the point of mirth.
"You're drunk, Old Man. Lay off the alcohol for a few days," Nero stated, unamused with the condition the red devil was in.
The elder Hunter attempted to rise to his feet, forgetting that they were propped upon his desk in front of him, and spilled into a heap on the floor next to his chair. Nero made his way to the famed Son of Sparda, and pulled him up and over his shoulder, beginning to carry the red-clad hunter up to his room.
"Thanks for the help, Kid," Dante slurred, drifting in and out of consciousness with the swaying of Nero's stride. "You couldn't have picked me up sooner?"
"Just focus on getting to sleep, Dante. You never know when the next big job will come in," Nero stated, focusing on sleep as much himself.
Dante was already passed out over Nero's shoulder, being announced by the clank the whiskey bottle made as it struck the floor. Nero just sighed in annoyance. Dante had been in this state far too often for his liking, lately. It had come to the point where Nero would occassionally just leave Dante passed out in the chair behind the front desk.
Nero collapsed onto his bed after dumping the elder hunter into his own. The training he did every day was exhaustive, but never to the point where he couldn't fully function the next day.
He turned to face the picture of himself with Kyrie and Credo, taken mere months before the incident in Fortuna. It was a prized possession, showing himself along with the only family he knew, until Dante showed up. 'What a Freudian mess I made of that family,' Nero thought somberly. "Happy New Year," he whispered to no one.
Moments later he was in the embrace of willful unconsciousness.
A/N: Definitely not a typical Happy New Year's celebration in the Devil May Cry shop, but Dante's never been typical. Nor has Nero, for that matter. I imagine a loss on those levels would drive home some major changes in character. But this is just an imagining I have. Nothing more.
How many people can tell me who the pianist is for the song I mentioned above? I'd give a hint, but any mention of his works would completely give it away.